The sagittal vestibulocollic reflex and its interaction with neck proprioceptive afferents in the decerebrate cat.

The sagittal vestibulocollic reflex (v.c.r.) evoked by nose-up, nose-down movements of the head, has been studied in the neck extensor muscle biventer cervicis in the decerebrate cat. Nose-down movements of the head increased, and nose-up movements decreased, electromyographic (e.m.g.) activity in the biventer cervicis muscles of the left and right sides. At low frequencies of sinusoidal head movement (0.1-0.5 Hz), the gain of the sagittal v.c.r. was approximately constant, and e.m.g. modulation showed a phase lead of about 40 deg with respect to head position. At higher frequencies (2-5 Hz), v.c.r. gain increased at a rate close to 40 dB/decade, and phase lead increased to approach 150 deg. The relation between head movement and v.c.r. activity may be described by a transfer function containing two lead terms, with time constants of 0.07 and 0.23 s, and two lag terms, with time constants of 5.3 and 9.9 s. When movements of the head were accompanied by stretching of the biventer cervicis muscles, the gain of the sagittal v.c.r. was increased threefold, at all frequencies between 0.1 and 5 Hz, with no substantial change in phase. Sinusoidal stretching of the biventer cervicis muscles, with the head stationary, evoked a stretch reflex (cervicocollic reflex, c.c.r.) the behaviour of which was similar to that of a second-order system described by a transfer function containing two lead terms with time constants of 0.07 and 0.16 s. This difference in dynamics between the v.c.r. and the c.c.r. indicates that the lag terms in the v.c.r. transfer function reflect the frequency-response properties of the vestibular pathway to the biventer cervicis muscles, as they do not appear when the same muscles participate in the c.c.r. The vectorial differences between the frequency-response of the sagittal v.c.r. with and without concomitant stretching of the biventer cervicis muscles is quantitatively similar to the frequency-response of the c.c.r. evoked by sinusoidal stretching. The inputs from the vestibular and stretch receptors thus appear to sum linearly to produce the increase in v.c.r. gain, at least over the frequency range 0.1-1 Hz. Since most head movements, and all voluntary head movements, involve a rotation of the head in relation to the neck, the potentiation of the gain of the v.c.r. by afferents from stretch receptors (presumably muscle spindles) in the neck muscles is an important factor in the normal reflex stabilization of head position.